Two of they key architects of Wasps' downfall in Dublin provided some words of consolation for their beleaguered opponents.

The reigning European champions kicked off their defence with an eight-try victory at the RDS on an evening when Wasps failed to make a single line break.

Led by Herculean efforts of Tommy Taylor, who would go on to make 26 tackles, Dai Young's side defended valiantly and looked set to go in at half-time 7-3 behind courtesy of Sean Cronin's early try.

But Lima Sopoaga's yellow card paved the way for Luke McGrath to sneak over as the visitors shipped 45 unanswered points in a defeat that came a week short of 1,000 days since Wasps defeated Leinster 52-10 at the Ricoh Arena.

Johnny Sexton

"I think it has been tough for Wasps, they've had a lot of injuries, lost a player to suspension in the week, so it has been a disruptive week for them," said Leinster head coach Leo Cullen.

"Sometimes in Europe, you only need to be a little bit off and you come unstuck and then the score can get out of control.

"We know that ourselves, we got beaten by 50 points by Wasps in the Ricoh a number of years ago. We got beaten pretty heavily here as well, so, in a game where we had a tonne of possession.

"It can be a little bit misleading at times. It was very close going into half-time. It could easily have been 7-3, 15 on 15 at the start of the second half. That was a big moment in the game.

"The most pleasing bit was we kept pushing and pushing and pushing."

Jack McGrath

One of the eight Leinster contingent who played in both the heavy loss at the Ricoh 993 days previously, Jonny Sexton, was also mindful of the disruption in the opposition camp leading into the Pool A fixture.

"There was a lot of hard work in the first half, that made the game open up in the second half," said fly half Sexton.

Leinster v Wasps in numbers

184 - metres made by Leinster's Kiwi winger James Lowe

8 - defenders he beat along the way

26 - tackles made by Tommy Taylor

90 - how many more attacking rucks Leinster had than Wasps

32 - defenders beaten by attacking Leinstermen

14 - the number of points Wasps conceded in five minutes after Lima Sopoaga's yellow card

10 - total for Leinster's top tackler (Jack Conan), tenth overall on the night, with Wasps players completing the other top-10 places

"They're missing some of their key players, Joe Launchbury is a real leader for them, Nathan Hughes who got banned during the week.

"So we know we're going to have to go up another level against other teams."

Only six players in the Wasps match-day 23 on Friday also featured in the 52-10 encounter nearly three years ago.

Josh Bassett, Elliot Daly, James Gaskell and Joe Simpson went from the start while Ashley Johnson and Rob Miller featured from the bench.